Utilization of guards on the leading edge of razor blade cartridges is well known. Many guard designs contain a series of individual fins that are made from elastomeric materials, enabling them to flex back and forth as the blade cartridge is moved over the skin surface. The fins are designed to stimulate and stretch the skin in front of the blades to improve comfort and proper positioning of the skin for cutting of hairs growing outwardly from the skin
The flexible fins on known commercial products tend to all point in the same vertical direction from a top portion of the respective blade cartridges. An example of this design approach is shown in the drawings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,675,479. As can be seen in FIG. 3 of the '479 Patent, fins 34 and 36 extend vertically from the top portion of cartridge 14. The vertical orientation is chosen so that the tips of the fins contact the skin at a relatively normal direction. It is believed that the normal direction contact via the fin tips may provide better skin stimulation/stretch as opposed to fin sidewall interaction that can occur if the fins are severely folded over on the skin
Vertically oriented fins can work well when shaving hair-containing skin that is relatively firm and/or has relatively firm underlying tissue, such as on the upper cheeks. There are areas of skin, such as, for example, on the neck, that are more compliant and do not have significant underlying bone structure. When a razor cartridge is pressed against these more compliant skin areas, a skin bulge is created in front of the skin guard. As the razor is moved across the skin, a significant level of stress can occur on the front edge of the guard due to the front edge typically being a solid wall that does not contain flexible fins. And vertically-oriented fins that are positioned near the front edge of the guard tend to fold over in the presence of the high level of loading whereby their function of stretching and stimulating the skin may not be optimal. A need accordingly exists for a razor guard that employs flexible fins in both the vertical direction and other directions to reduce the loading on the front edge of the razor cartridge to improve glide, and to improve the interaction with the skin bulge formed in front of the guard when compliant skin is being shaved.